The Commercial and Political Value of User Data

Moderator: Diah Angendari 
Guests: Alia Y. Karunian, Katharina Nocun, Michael Seemann, Jun-E  Tan 

The stream of signals users produce as they navigate their digital lives opens the door for various use cases and exploitations. The digital stream allows corporate brands and governments to target people by interest, background, and behavior. Further, it turns private data into a commodity that can be traded for profit, that can enable control and is sometimes even used for purposes far beyond the intention or knowledge of its original owners. 

The moderated panel discussion will be looking at the mechanisms of personal data extraction, storage, analysis, and commercialization. Several scenarios and use cases are explored: user data on shopping and entertainment platforms, in political micro-targeting, in financial services platforms, and in state surveillance.